The Authority of Our Message...... Dr. Charles Stanley

 The Authority of Our Message

Dr. Charles Stanley

1 Kings 17:1

King Ahab's first thought after encountering the prophet Elijah may well have been, Of all the nerve! Just who does this guy think he is? Bursting onto the scene out of nowhere, Elijah confronted Israel's wicked king with a message that would soon disrupt life throughout the entire region.

The validity of the revelation rested with the Source, not the mouthpiece. Elijah was a man of great faith who believed what God told him; he could boldly speak with authority because he knew and trusted the One who gave the message. He spent time alone with the Lord and listened as he stood before Him.

Our Father doesn't speak to us in exactly the same manner that He spoke to the Old Testament prophets, but the process of receiving His message hasn't changed. It begins with being alone in His presence and involves listening as He speaks through His Word. But it shouldn't end there.

Prophets had the responsibility of telling the people what the Lord revealed to them. Similarly, we are to share with others what we learn from God's Word. Devotional time with the Lord is not just about our own interests and needs. The Father reveals His treasures to us so that we can share them with others.

Begin each day alone with God in His Word and in prayer, listening as He speaks to your heart. Believe what He says in Scripture, apply it to your life, and then share with someone else what He has revealed. Be bold and remember that the authority of your message comes from Him.

1 Kings 17:1

King Ahab's first thought after encountering the prophet Elijah may well have been, Of all the nerve! Just who does this guy think he is? Bursting onto the scene out of nowhere, Elijah confronted Israel's wicked king with a message that would soon disrupt life throughout the entire region.

The validity of the revelation rested with the Source, not the mouthpiece. Elijah was a man of great faith who believed what God told him; he could boldly speak with authority because he knew and trusted the One who gave the message. He spent time alone with the Lord and listened as he stood before Him.

Our Father doesn't speak to us in exactly the same manner that He spoke to the Old Testament prophets, but the process of receiving His message hasn't changed. It begins with being alone in His presence and involves listening as He speaks through His Word. But it shouldn't end there.

Prophets had the responsibility of telling the people what the Lord revealed to them. Similarly, we are to share with others what we learn from God's Word. Devotional time with the Lord is not just about our own interests and needs. The Father reveals His treasures to us so that we can share them with others.

Begin each day alone with God in His Word and in prayer, listening as He speaks to your heart. Believe what He says in Scripture, apply it to your life, and then share with someone else what He has revealed. Be bold and remember that the authority of your message comes from Him.

Forgive the Person, Not Their Actions..... Craig Denison

 Forgive the Person, Not Their Actions

Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

Offering forgiveness to others is one of the most difficult and important aspects of the Christian life. The Bible clearly commands us to forgive others. God longs to fashion us into his likeness that we might model the love we’ve been shown to a world with no concept of mercy. He longs for us to offer grace and forgiveness to the undeserving as we have been offered grace and forgiveness when we were undeserving. May you be filled with courage and boldness to offer forgiveness to those in desperate need of grace. And may God’s love shine through as you enter into your calling as a minister of reconciliation.

Scripture:“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” >John 13:34

Devotional:

One of the most important distinctions to make when learning about the practice of forgiveness is to forgive the person, not their actions. Playing the sequence of someone’s wrongful action over and over again in the mind is a terrible hindrance to obeying God’s command to forgive. When we continually reflect on how wrong an action was, our thoughts act as a blockade between our hearts and God’s heavenly compassion.

John 13:34 tells us, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” God forgives us because he loves us, not because our actions are ever worthy of forgiveness. He forgives us because he values restored relationship with us over our sins. He forgives us because he is filled with love for us, not because our acts of confession demand forgiveness from him. And he says, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” When Peter denied Jesus three times, he offered him relationship and another opportunity to serve him. When Thomas was filled with doubt, Jesus offered him his nail-pierced hands. And when we sin against God, he offers us forgiveness that we might receive the full depths of his love again.

Luke 6:37 says, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Our job is not to judge or condemn the actions of another. The only one worthy of passing judgment is already seated on his throne. God alone is perfect and able to offer sound judgment. He alone carries the burden of being King of kings and Lord of  lords. And he continually chooses to show mercy and compassion on the undeserving. He continually offers forgiveness to the unworthy and sinful. He continually runs out to meet us in our sin, like the father of the prodigal son.

Showing compassion for the wrongful actions of another is not easy, but it is necessary. If we are to live a lifestyle of continual forgiveness the way God commands, we must look to heart of the person and receive God’s compassion rather than taking up the seat of judgement. If we are to love one another as God has loved us, we must value relationship over worldly justice and give grace where none is deserved. May we obtain access to the heart of our heavenly Father today as we seek to love as he loves. May we be filled with compassion for others after reflection on the overwhelming grace we’ve been shown. And may we be filled with courage and strength to reach past a wrongful action and forgive the person from our hearts.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God’s command to “judge not.” Allow Scripture to renew your mind to the important command to forgive others.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” >Luke 6:37

“Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” >Proverbs 17:9

2. What action has been deemed unforgivable in your mind? Where are you struggling to forgive a person because of the way they’ve wronged you?

3. Ask God to give you the ability to look past a wrongful action to the heart of the person so that you might have compassion and offer forgiveness. Spend time in his presence removing yourself from the seat of judgment so that you can offer grace and forgiveness.

“He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:10-14

When we offer forgiveness where none is deserved, we are placing our hope for justice and reconciliation in God rather than ourselves. When we offer mercy we look to heaven for all things to be set right and renewed rather than looking to this fallen and folly-filled world. There is no perfection in this world. There is nothing we can do to completely rid this world of its inherent depravity. So we must look to our heavenly Father to work and heal as he wills and follow in his footsteps. We must carry an atmosphere of grace so that heaven can meet earth through our lives and draw people into the fold of God. May we have the strength and perspective to place our hope in heaven and offer mercy, compassion, and forgiveness to the wrongful, destitute, and proud.

Extended Reading: John 13

Let Me Love You Well..... LYNN COWELL

 Let Me Love You Well

LYNN COWELL

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger …” James 1:19 (ESV)

At the end of every summer when my kids were growing up, I could always count on one thing. The day before school started, anxiety ran rampant. As the sun began to lower, my children’s uneasy emotions rose higher as unanswered questions came to the surface.

Will my friends from last year be in my class this year?
Will my teacher like me?
Will I have someone to sit with in the lunchroom?

I would try to answer every question to settle their hearts. Looking back, I wish I had simply been a more empathic listener, allowing them to get all their nervous questions out in the open without me needing to share all the solutions.

Sometimes in life, what we need more than anything is someone to simply listen. An ear that will take in all the rumblings of an apprehensive heart and not feel the need to say a thing. A person who will not be in a rush to try to make it right.

I’ve always been a better talker than a listener. In fact, a well-meaning teacher once made me memorize James 1:19, which says, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger …” Up until recently, I had viewed this verse as the voice from my childhood, saying, “Lynn, you talk too much.” Recently, though, I began to look at it as instruction for my roles today as daughter, mother, wife, friend or co-laborer — a challenge not just to talk less but to truly listen to those around me.

James gives us the wisdom and the challenge to be the empathic listeners others desperately need. He calls each of us, no matter what role we are filling at the moment, to slow down and listen.

Not mentally preparing to share a story from my life.
Not scrolling through the verses I can recall so I can adhere a Band-Aid on their sadness.
Not reminding them to look on the bright side so I can dismiss their feelings that are making me uncomfortable.
Not moving on so I can get to what’s left on my to-do list. (Yes, I’ve made all of these mistakes before!)

Instead, James, while reminding us we are loved, calls us to move quickly to a position of listening and to move slowly, even with caution, to a place of speaking.

I am so challenged by James’ words. I’m a get-’er-done kind of gal who wants to set things right so I can move on to setting other things right. James reminds me: Getting things done is not the goal. Loving people well is the goal. Listening is loving people well.

With Jesus’ power in us and James’ words before us, you and I can love people as we listen well.

Jesus, my natural bent is to be quick to speak and slow to listen. I want to love people well, just as You did. Empower me to slow down and truly begin to hear those around me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

What to Do If Someone Is Caught in Sin..... By Jennifer Waddle

 What to Do If Someone Is Caught in Sin (Galatians 6:1-2)

By Jennifer Waddle

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1-2)

Turn on the nightly news or scroll through social media longer than five seconds and you’ll probably feel your blood pressure begin to rise. Arguments, opinions, and derogatory statements are filling every inch of the media these days, and for many of us, it’s making us mad!

We long for the days when people minded their own business, worked hard, and got along. (Were there really days like that?) Tired of the back-and-forth banter that goes nowhere, we find ourselves in the middle of the mess, wanting the madness to stop.

Then we remember Paul’s words to the Galatians when he said, “If someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.”

Gently? You mean, we are supposed to be gentle and kind when dealing with people caught in sin? But what about putting people in their place? Isn’t that a noble thing to do? After all, wouldn’t the world be a much better place if people lived like we think they should?

Paul went on to say, “If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”

The clear message of humility cannot be mistaken in Paul’s words. Yet, humility is the last thing we are thinking about when something makes us angry. As we watch sin grow rampant in our nation and across the world, we feel helpless to stop it. And we wonder how much longer we’ll be able to bear it.

If you’re feeling frustrated at everything going on around you, I encourage you to take some time away from the noise. Turn off the television and social media, and get away for a period of time. Commit to prayer and Bible study, asking God to soften your heart towards those who are caught in sin.

Then, as you return to the “madness,” seek out one person who is struggling and approach them gently. Share with them the ways you used to struggle and how Jesus delivered you. Try to approach the current times with a heart of compassion and wisdom instead of anger and opinion. I believe this is the way real change will happen.

Yes, there might be times when God calls us to do or say some hard things. When those moments come, His Spirit will equip us with words and actions for the moment. But for now, let’s be voices of wisdom, love, and hope. Let’s exchange anger for reason, restoring people back to who they were created to be.

If you find yourself saying, more often than not, “It makes me so mad,” I encourage you to read the first ten verses of Galatians chapter six. It will put things into perspective and remind you to “do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Stuck with Paul..... by John UpChurch

 Stuck with Paul

by John UpChurch

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Romans 10:14 

You can’t escape Paul forever. At some point, every Christian must set aside self-righteousness and drink Paul’s writing, which can be akin to slurping down pickle juice. The sharp bitterness sends shivers through the whole body—and yet hydrates from the inside out (which is really what pickle juice does).

The bitterness, however, isn’t from what Paul says exactly; it’s from our reaction. Each word hurts because it’s true. Sometimes he hits our recklessness, and sometimes he hits our legalism, helping us to clean the glass so that we can see clearly.

Far worse, in my mind, is Paul’s refusal to let us gloat or raise ourselves up. There’s no place for that, no room for a trophy case. Being isolated by my own sense of holiness would be easier; I’d love to slip away into my happy world of playing Christian.

Paul doesn’t even let me close the door.

“Look ‘out there,’” he says. “You see those people? That’s you—each one is just like you. They need the gospel. They need grace. You know all about it. You’ve met the same Jesus I did. They’re not coming in here, bub. So, get out there and do something.”

It’s an uncomfortable feeling, trying to understand how to be like Christ, how to shine through pitch. I want to pursue Him with all I am, but He keeps going out where the tax collectors and sinners are—people like me. The only difference is that I realized how much I needed Him; they haven’t yet. And perhaps the very reason they haven’t is because I’m not out there telling them.

Or as Paul might put it (at least, in my head), “They ain’t gonna hear if you don’t speak up. And they ain’t gonna fall on their knees if you’re too chicken.”

Jesus went to the synagogue—and then took the synagogue to the people who needed it most. He did most of His miracles out in the thoroughfares, tombs, fields, and corners of the world. His loudest messages echoed from hills and street corners. In fact, I didn’t meet Him in a church—or a Bible study or a church event. I met Him where Matthew did: in the middle of my sin.

Some sinners come running to steeples. Some sinners come running to Jesus in the streets.

Intersecting Faith and Life: We all need Paul to smack us around on occasion. He keeps us from digging a bunker to hide from the messy world outside. He reminds us that Jesus picked us off the ground, not to look down at those still trying to stand, but to show them the One who can make it happen.

For Further Reading
Romans 1-2
Matthew 9

A Prayer for Hope..... By Wendy van Eyck

 A Prayer for Hope

By Wendy van Eyck

While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” – Mark 5:35-36

I've often wished I had never heard the words, “Your husband has cancer.” They are hope-sucking words. Those four words were the ones Xylon and I heard a few months after marriage. And then two more times in the years since. Each time the doctor has spoken them I’ve felt God whisper into the dark corners of heart time-and-again: “Just trust me.”

I don’t think anyone likes hearing the phrase, “Just trust me.” But sometimes that is just what God requires of us. When I’m worried about what is going to happen next, when I’m stressed out over what the doctors results will say, or when I feel like I have no hope because I can’t see my dreams ever being a reality, that’s when I hear it, quiet, firm, “Just trust me.”

One thing I’ve learned in the almost four years since Xylon’s cancer diagnosis is that when the rest of the world is saying there’s no hope, Jesus is standing there saying, “They’re wrong.” When everyone else is questioning if Jesus really cares about the hard things we’re going through, I listen for his voice declaring, “Don’t listen to them; just trust me.”

A Prayer for Hope

If today you’re struggling to find hope in dark places and are looking for words to pray, I hope these prayerful words help:

Lord, help me to hear you saying, "I am your hope" over all the other voices. Lord, your word says, you are the hope for hopeless so I'm running to you with both hands stretched out and grabbing on to you. Fill me up with hope and give me a tangible reminder today that hope is an unbreakable spiritual lifeline (Hebrews 6:19-20). God, you know those things in my heart that I barely dare to hope for, today I give them to you, I trust them to you, and ask that you because I know that you can do more than I could ever guess, imagine or request in wildest dreams (Eph 3:20). God, you are my hope and I trust you. Amen.

What are you seeking hope for today? No matter your situation God is waiting to hear from you and to give you unlimited hope and faith!